Law Enforcement

There is a saying, "as important as the law itself is the law enforcement" or "no law without enforcement." We have to admit, after the downfall of Soeharto, new laws have been established to improve the quality of Indonesian democracy, especially to prevent excessive abuse of power. President Election Law No. 42/2008, for example, is a good one. But like other laws deliberated, the biggest concern is in its enforcement.

Abuse of power was the order of the day for almost 32 years under Soeharto regime. That's why we wanted the reform. Those days, bureaucracy and state-owned companies were merely vehicles to maintain political power. They were only assets for Soeharto and his cronies. They were not the State assets because the State had been taken over by Soeharto and his cronies.

Reform gives the country an opportunity to change such practices. We have amended the Constitution so someone could only be president for two periods or 10 years. We initially thought that the amendment would be enough to prevent someone from repeating Soeharto's style of power abuse.

New laws and regulations have also been deliberated. Government Regulation No. 45/2005 about SOEs, article 22 and 97 forbids board of directors, board of commissioners, and staffs of SOEs from being officers in political party. Law No. 10/2008 about Legislative Election has similar stipulation.

The biggest test is whether election-related institutions would enforce Law No. 42/2008 in relation to public scrutiny on some SOEs commissioners who are actively involved in political activism in favor of certain president candidate. General Election Commission (KPU) chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshary said two commissioners have been violating article 41 point 2d of the Law. It is a crime, he said. But you can't stop there. Someone has to prosecute the violations. We can't move on with the practices in the past where a crime has no criminal.

Article 216 of Law No. 42.2008 clearly states that violation of Article 41 point 2 is punishable for up to 12 months behind the bars and fines up to Rp60 million. Someone has to pay the price for his or her decision to commit such violation.

Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) listed 12 commissioners might be implicated in such violation, most of them are members of success team, political party, or organizations affiliated to SBY-Boediono camp. They are, among others, Sutanto (Pertamina/Pro-SBY Movement), Umar Said (Pertamina/Demokrat Party), Muhayat (Bank Mandiri/deputy minister for SOEs/Chairman of Barindo---supporter of SBY), and others.

SBY's credibility is tested in this issue, especially when government fired economist Rizal Ramli as president commissioner of state-owned cement manufacturer PT Semen Gresik (SMGR) Tbk last year due to his political activism.

Demokrat Party executive Anas Urbaningrum tried to clarify the issue arguing Sutanto is only listed as a "volunteer". Well, looks like Urbaningrum didn't read the election law carefully. 

Law No. 42/2008 about presidential election stipulates clearly in the Article 41 point 2.d. that campaign teams are not allowed to bring into the campaign activities all the officers of state-owned enterprises. Point 3 of the same article also forbids the SOEs officers become campaign team members. Article 44 of the Law No. 42 also forbids SOEs officers from conducting activities (meetings, suggestions, etc) that clearly support one of candidates. Violation to all of these articles are considered election crimes. SOEs minister Sofyan Djalil had actually issued a circular to implement these articles. 

Police neutrality is also tested in the examination of Bawaslu report about allegation of violation of the election law committed by SBY-Boediono team for early campaigning. 

Yesterday, Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) claimed that the organization discovered Rp7 billion suspicious funds for Kalla-Wiranto campaign team. "Kalla-Wiranto team claimed the funds were registered under the political party's name while our research shown the funds from individuals," Fahmi Badoh from ICW said.

Once again, General Election Commission (KPU) shall uphold the presidential election law to create a better democracy and put an end decades of "corruption" of State assets. What's the meaning of corruption eradication if the country is just too permissive on the violation committed by public officers?

Haryanto Suharman & Yosef Ardi

---Taken from Yosefardi.com----

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